OSWEGO -- A SUNY Oswego professor who was remembered as "a deeply dedicated and highly successful teacher" by a colleague is memorialized in a scholarship fund that was recently augmented by a generous bequest from his widow.

The estate of Helen Lois Goodwin, who graduated from Oswego in 1954, provided $42,795.06 to the college to support the Professor Paul Goodwin Memorial Scholarship Fund, which has been helping Oswego students since 1989.

"We are grateful for Mrs. Goodwin's gift, which will keep alive the memory of her husband, and help future generations of Oswego students benefit from his dedication to Oswego and to learning," said SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley.

Paul Goodwin died in 1988. He joined the Oswego faculty in 1947, after receiving his master's degree in political science from Syracuse University. He was one of the original members of the political science department.

He also served in several administrative positions, including director of admissions and coordinator of the American studies program, which he helped design and bring into existence.

"His primary contribution to the college during his years of service was clearly the example he set as a deeply dedicated and highly successful teacher," his colleague Fred Bartle wrote at Goodwin's retirement in 1972.

"He worked closely with generations of students, maintained contact with an incredible number of them, and guided them in many ways," Bartle wrote. "He was a forceful spokesman for academic freedom and integrity."

Lois Goodwin died in January 2001. In a 1998 issue of Oswego alumni magazine, she recalled how in 1947 she and her husband became "house parents" at the college's first residence for women, located on Montcalm Street in Oswego: "Suddenly, my husband and I had 45 young, lively, daughters for four memorable years."

The next phase of her involvement with the college was as an adult student. "In 1951, Paul and I moved to our new home near campus, and I, having been so closely involved with freshmen, became one myself as a member of the Class of '54, Oswego's first accelerated class," she wrote.

She also worked in the library and participated in the bucket brigade, moving the books from Sheldon Hall in 1961 to the then new library, now Rich Hall and the site of major renovations for the School of Business.

To donate to the Paul Goodwin Memorial Scholarship Fund, or for information on making SUNY Oswego part of a will, call the Office of Development at 312-3003.